The educational events included the Michigan Health Interoperability Virtual Environment (MiHIVE) Education Consortium and insightful cybersecurity sessions featuring State of Michigan Chief Security Officer (CSO) Jaysen Cavendish. There were also sessions on protecting healthcare data in the GenAI era and discussions and solutions on how to build a resilient cyber organization and workforce. The day concluded with a welcome reception, dinner, and networking. Some health IT professionals wanted to keep the conversations going into the night, so they gathered around a campfire and were fortunate enough to have a clear evening, allowing them to enjoy the stunning Northern Lights.

The main conference started on Tuesday, October 8th with a keynote speech on the transformative potential of digital health in mental healthcare, followed by a relevant session on leveraging virtual reality (VR) to enhance therapeutic health outcomes. A panel discussion on AI followed, focusing on its vast opportunities in health data analytics, the risks of data exposure and bias, and responsible use.

The conference then featured a session on how drones are transforming the healthcare landscape and providing patients with access to resources. Updates were provided by the Michigan Health IT Commission and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) on their Health IT Roadmap, along with a panel discussing Community Information Exchange (CIE) and health equity initiatives. This aim is to ensure that all patients in all areas have access to the best possible care in the State. The next panel featured stakeholders in the Payer world, discussing the current pain points they face regarding data exchange and interoperability.

Discussions included the importance of seamless transitions from hospital to home and follow-up care, fragmented data sources and gaps with skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and leveraging community health workers (CHWs) with health information exchange longitudinal data. Updates were then presented from tribal health, Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (MiHIN), MiHIVE, and the closing keynote focused on the patient experience in the age of AI.